Apple gains ground in Indian tablet market; Samsung still No 1

Apple is now India’s third largest tablet vendor and closing in on No 2 Micromax which now has a 8.9% market share. However, Apple’s 7.5% market share, gained with help from its popular Apple Mini tablet, pales in comparison with market leader Samsung’s 18.7%, says IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker data for CY 2013.

According to IDC, India’s overall tablet shipments for CY 2013 stood at 4.14 million units representing a year-on-year growth of 56.4% over CY 2012. However, the high growth in the first half of 2013 driven by low-end devices, contracted substantially in the second half with adoption reaching levels of maturity.

In India, there is more acceptance for the 8 to 9 inch segment.

“The popularity of phablets has in fact crossed over the demand for 7 inch tablets. For a price conscious market like India, it is about owning a combination device, meeting the needs with one device instead of two. Also, the return rates on low cost 7 inch tablets have been unexplainably large. First time users latching onto such devices are now looking to move to products that offer better experience in terms of life span and quality” said, Karan Thakkar, Senior Market Analyst with IDC.

IDC anticipates the overall tablet market to remain flat in CY 2014. “The government mandate on BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) Certification mixed with the growing popularity of phablets is likely to obstruct the growth in the tablet category”, said Kiran Kumar, Research Manager with IDC.

However, there has been an uptake in the adoption of tablets amongst commercial users. These are primarily meeting relevant needs in industries such as financial services, healthcare, media and education, amongst others. “Activities such as interactive digital presentations, collecting KYC (Know your Customer) documents, and point-of-sale transactions are typical use cases”, added Karan Thakkar.